Colombia to Ecuador - A border with class!

When its time to move on to a new country, the one thing you dread second to immigration queues is border towns. They’re depressing places, usually full of unsavoury types who would love to get their hands on some gringo money – often in the form of a money exchangers.

Actually, for the first time we came upon a new trick. - a calculator that’s wired to make the wrong sums. Yes, the ‘kind’ man lends you his calculator, you divide one number by a given exchange rate, and hey presto you’re down ten dollars. Unless you’re on the ball, it’s easy to fall for and not so much a rip off that you immediately notice. Never mind.

Where was I? Oh yeah, border towns. Well, if you find yourself heading to Ecuador from Colombia then brighten up the experience by visiting a spectacular church just outside of Ipiales. It’s the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Las Lajas and it’s well worth it a look. You only really need an hour to get a collectivo (white taxis) there, take it all in and a few snaps, and then head back to the business of crossing the border.

The border crossing was very smooth. And on the Ecuador side the officials didn’t even try to act …official. One in particular was playing a latino song on his iphone and singing along to it. It certainly lifted the mood!

Ecuador’s border town, Tulcan, on the other hand is very much as dull and depressing as you come to expect. Still, you don’t have to be there long. Once you’ve been hassled by five guys trying to sell you the same bus ticket (you only need one guy, how do they make a living splitting it five ways?), you’re on your way towards Quito. It’s then time to relax and take in more impressive landscapes. Almost immediately it’s more striking than south-western Colombia, and that’s no mean feat!

The Road To Pasto

When we arrived in San Augustin we learned that to go south toward Ecuador we’d have to go north to Popayan – which is another bumpy dusty journey – and then go to Pasto from there. A solid 12 hours travelling, it wasn’t appealing. However, the girl in the tourist office had said this was the safe way.

Later we found out about another way to get to Pasto. You take a taxi to Pitalito, a bus to Mocoa and then a pick up to Pasto. Total travel time; nine hours. Much better.

The journey and the connections all worked very well. But when the tourist office girl had mentioned safety, we had assumed she meant high way robbery and the like. Once on the road to Pasto from Mocoa, we realised she had in fact mean the safety aspect of travelling on such a road. This road was bumpy and rocky but climbed up mountains and down through valleys all the way. We were faced with sheer drops most of the time. And to avoid a five hour journey becoming ten, the driver really attacked the road like it was a rally circuit.

Sitting in the back of the pick up, we got covered in dust. But it wasn’t all bad. The scenery through the Andean mountains was spectacular. We concentrated on this, rather than the almost certain death at the next bend! I think the blurred picture above says it all.

I’m trying to think what to write about Pasto. I’m struggling. It is a nice enough place and has a variety of religious architecture to see. It’s certainly not a bad place to be, just not particularly memorable.

We stayed at a hostel called Koala Inn (it used to be run by Aussies) and that was perfectly nice but really very quiet. Again, where are all the travellers? Luckily the French couple from Tierradentro turned up and so did a girl called Manu, who we’ve been bumping into since Panama!

San Agustin - Colombia

The other favourite place for a bit of ancient artefact action is San Agustin. If you want somewhere that has a bit more going on than Tierradentro, then this is the place. Its still a small town but, bizarrely it has two large public swimming pools and there is a good choice of restaurants and places to stay. Plus if you fancy staying on a ‘Finca’ (farm) then there are a lot of choices. – the one we chose being Finca El Maco which is up a very steep hill. The steep hill is worth it though, especially if you get to sleep in a place that looks like a gingerbread house!

San Agustin has plenty of choice all round. It has various stone statues and tombs scattered on the outskirts of town and you have a choice of how to see them. We chose to spice it up a little and hire horses.

I’ve never really liked horses. A bit like monkeys, I’ve always felt ill at ease in their presence. They can behave in such a skittish manner and I’ve never been keen on anything with such large teeth. Still, while on our travels I’ve seen plenty of people on horses with guides and the guide walks the horse while you sit on top. Better than walking all day, we decided to do it.

However, this was not like the other guided tours we’d seen before. On this one the guide has a horse and you have a horse. No one walks. My horse was white, wasn’t keen on stopping and always wanted to be in front. But. surprisingly I felt very comfortable and the horse was very easy to control. Steering and braking all done with the reins, I wondered why I hadn’t tried this before. And to speed up a couple of clicks with your tongue or a tap with your heels did the trick. I also threw in a “woah, woah” for good measure!

After we had negotiated the steep hill down from the finca, we made our way through town and into the countryside. Occasionally we broke into a trot, which was pretty uncomfortable. Then we did what I never thought I’d do on my first ride. We galloped! What an amazing experience. It was much more comfortable than trotting and rushing through the countryside was exhilarating. My little white horse really liked to go fast! It was time for  a “yee-hah” or two!

Our guide was friendly and knowledgeable (we’ll gloss over the part where he offered us cocaine, gold and ceramic artefacts) and the horses were so good, no instruction was needed. I enjoyed seeing the stone statues, but what made it brilliant was our mode of transport. Within four hours I’d changed my view on horses.

Tombs in Tierradentro

If you look on a map, the major attractions in the Cauca area of Colombia look pretty close together. However, many of them can only be reached by bumpy, rocky road meaning your travel time increases significantly. Equally your travel comfort decreases significantly too! But the road to San Agustin, the town in Tierradentro, keeps you occupied with breathtaking mountains and valleys. As long as the driver safely negotiates the windy sheer-drop bends, you can forgive the bumps.

We’ve been fairly lucky with bus journeys recently. The bus from Cali to Popayan took 2 ½ hours when it could have taken 4. And the bus from Popayan to San Augustine took 4 hours, not the 5 or 6 we’d geared ourselves up for. It’s always better that way.

This journey started with the longest sales pitch delivered from the front of a bus that I’ve ever witnessed. The guy carefully explained every health risk going and how the book he was selling would provide all the answers for a disease free and healthy lifestyle. A good forty minutes long, it was impressive stuff. By the end even the parrot nearby was repeating his spiel!

San Augustine is a tiny village consisting of one dusty road that snakes uphill to a 16^th century church with a thatched roof - incidentally you wouldn't want to smoke near it, but apparently the thatched roof if there so that in the event of an earthquake, it doesn't destroy what's inside the church. The road has a number of guesthouses and a couple of restaurants – both of which serve the standard meal of meat (usually chicken or beef), rice and fried plantain. It’s a cheap and filling, although after the tenth time in a row you just want some variety. I miss vegetables.

The main pull for tourism here is the ancient tombs that have been found in a number of locations in the surrounding hills and mountains. We took a walking tour with a really competent guide called Fabien, (the bar has been set fairly low by William in Ometepe!) who explained all there was to know about these tombs and stone statues dating back 2500 years.

In truth there isn’t a great deal any guide can tell you about these tombs . For example, why did some contain bones and some an urn? That question drew a blank. A lot of what is found is made sense of by educated guesses. But that doesn’t make it any less wonderful to see for yourself.

In fact, we had an interesting day, language-wise too. We took the tour with three Frenchmen who spoke Spanish. Fabien only spoke Spanish therefore we picked up as much as we could – he spoke slowly which helped – and anything that we didn’t understand, was translated via French to English. It worked a whole lot better than you’d think!

We spent a whole day walking through the green countryside, frequently stopping to climb down into tombs. It was magnificent. There are many more tombs that have yet to be excavated. They keep a policy whereby only once a tomb has collapsed due to an earthquake do they unearth a new one. It's all very carefully monitored and controlled - especially considering there is probably many more valuable gold and ceramic artefacts to be found. Who knows, maybe other tombs will reveal more answers about these ancient civilisations and what they believed in.

Popayan - a great Cali detox

From Cali we took the bus (which surprisingly only took about 2 ½ hours – the driver REALLY sped!) and checked in at a place called Hostel Trail, which is run by two very friendly Scots from Edinburgh. Their hostel is modern and has all the facilities you need including a great DVD collection if you haven’t watched a film in a while. They had a wealth of information on what to do and how to get to nearby destinations. The only negative point was the road outside and the lack of double glazing – although it should improve once the Pan American Highway is finished and traffic is no longer diverted through town.

Oh yes, and the one other drawback was a particular guest who thought it OK to be outside our room on Skype at 2am- despite several people asking her to stop! It was a tense situation. What do you do when you’ve asked politely and someone continues as if you hadn’t said anything? What is the next step? Rip the plug from the wall? The argument started to simmer. This woman did not back down one bit clearly thinking we were unreasonable to want to sleep. Either someone went to find the night porter, or he heard the raised voices and luckily that settled things. She conceded defeat and went to sit downstairs in the dark – seriously, she was nocturnal. You didn’t see her by day.

It was not the fault of the hostel (the night porter was usually close by but had been moved to allow some renovation works), but the next night the computers were turned off, before there was a punch up – we had actually discussed the possibility. Sophie was to do the punching, I would coach from a distance!

I’m sounding like a grumpy old man, I know. But being kept awake by someone can drive you to murderous thoughts! It reminds me of the time someone next door was practicing the Eastender theme tune on the recorder. Yes, dark thoughts indeed. It's one thing if you check into a lively and sociable hostel that allows people to drink and chat all night, but this was not that kind of place. But it’s the first rude person I’ve come across so I’ll dwell on that no further.

You can’t get much more of a contrast than between Cali and Popayan. Popayan’s old town is full of aesthetic architecture and lovely restaurants but it is a quiet place and there are few people on the streets after dark. It’s what you need if you want to relax and catch up on sleep.

However there are plenty of activities you can do and we took some mountain bikes, along with a German girl and a Belgian guy, into the green and rolling countryside. A pick-up took us 30km past the town of Coconuco to the Tibias Hot Springs. There you can chose from a number of pools of ranging temperatures, plus one has a slide that is faster than you think! We also took the opportunity to have a dip in the mud pool – the locals found it amusing watching the white guy cover himself in mud and who can blame them?!

We cycled back down to Popayan. It was mostly downhill but there were enough inclines to raise the pulse and make you feel like you’d done a day’s work! There were some fantastic downhill stretches and some refreshing scenery. We did what was recommended and stopped off for a hot chocolate with cheese. Ever dipped cheese into hot chocolate? Well, don’t. It’s wrong.

Cali - the eyes have it

Cali is a place that everyone seems to go when travelling through Colombia and it is famous for its night life. And according to our guide book, people say that Cali is home to the most "beautiful women in Colombia". I won't comment on that only to say you could substitute the word 'beautiful' for the word 'flirtatious'. Seriously, if you want to walk down the street and feel like Brad Pitt or George Clooney, hang out in Cali. Perhaps they appreciate the western man in Cali. Or perhaps they see a money bag with a dollar sign on it - like in the cartoons - I don't know. What I do know is that there was no shortage of batted eyelids whether it be in the supermarket or the salsa club. A French guy we met seemed almost bored with it, but then I suppose that is no surprise. Cali women must be at opposite ends of the scale compared with Parisian women!

As with most major towns and cities, there are areas you shouldn't go after dark. We stayed in the Granada area which is supposed to be the safest, though even there we were warned to watch out for a gun-wielding couple on a motorbike apparently out robbing people. But, like everywhere else, you just need to keep your wits about you. And the taxis are so cheap that there isn't really any need to go wandering at night.

The city really isn't very pretty. The good looking buildings are few and far between and the photos I took are misleadingly flattering. We walked through to San Antonio which is home to some nice architecture and then further up to the church where you can get a good view of the city. It's not an impressive sight and isn't worth the trek.

Anyway, back to salsa, it's pretty much the main reason for a visit to Cali. They absolutely love their salsa music and it seems like a genuine love and not just something cultural they want to hang onto. After looking around the city we decided that the best way to see the place is at night. (The city is definitely not beautiful). So we teamed up with the aforementioned French guy, Philippe, and none other than Dutch TV sports broadcaster Ronald Strater. OK so unless you're Dutch you may not have heard of him, but he is YouTube-able! They were both great guys and we had a lot of fun, including a couple of late night/early morning finishes. Our secret to success was: start out at the Chipichape Mall food court and take in the calories - including delicious waffles or crepes. Next, head to a bar on Avenida 6 and take in some rum. Then head to a club and take in some salsa - you'll need those calories!

As in Colombia in general, the people in Cali are lovely, friendly and only too keen to teach you some salsa should you so fancy. I managed the most basic steps for a little while, but by then it must have been 3am and getting any sort of coordination on the dance floor was a major achievement!